New concerns over Xbox 360 security as credit card details retrieved

More concerns have arisen over the security of Xbox 360 after it emerged that restoring the console to factory settings won’t necessarily remove your personal information. A team of university researchers successfully retrieved credit card data from an Xbox that had been recently refurbished. What’s even more alarming is that it was done with basic modifying tools.

The findings could set alarm bells ringing for consumers who have sold their Xbox 360 thinking they had successfully wiped the console of any personal data. Head of the Drexel University research team, Ashley Podhradsky, said the only way of being truly sure that all personal data had been deleted was by using a third-party data erasing program such as Darik’s Boot & Nuke.

The research was focused solely on the Xbox 360, so it will be interesting to see if the Drexel University team comes back with future findings on any other consoles.